England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wyck Rissington St Laurence

The Parish

The parish of Wyck Rissington lies in eastern Gloucestershire not too far from its border with neighbouring Oxfordshire. Wyck Rissington is located about 3 miles south of the market town of Stow on the Wold and sits a mile west of the the A424 road which connects Stow with Burford and Lechlade. Wyck Rissington is a small and linear village built along the edge of the flood plain of the Rivers Dikler & Eye which converge to the west of the village. Given its valley status Wyck Rissington would have largely had a pastoral farming economy at the time of this transcript, cattle in the valley and sheep on the downs; today there is much more arable about despite the thin soils. The Dikler soon joins the Windrush to drain the parish southwards, the latter running across Oxfordshire to join the Thames to the west of Oxford and thence through Oxford & London to the North Sea through the Thames Estuary. Wyck Rissington is sited at around 140 metres above the sea in undulating downland countryside of the Cotswold Hill, local heights rise sharply a further 100 metres or so to nearby Wyck Beacon. This area of the county has numerous small parishes and Wyck Rissington is no exception, it covered just under 1,300 acres and would have supported a population of around 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Wyck Rissington was held by one Roger de Lacy, a small place offering just 9 ploughs but did possess a mill.

The Church

St Laurence's church sits on the southern edge of the village on the eastern side of the lane rising to Wyck Beacon. The church has been here for a very long time, Pevsner cites the thickness of the fabric of the tower and traces of the corbel table as being typically 12th century and Norman Romanesque. The church, however, received a major rebuild during the early English Gothic period at the behest of the monks of Eynsham Abbey , they received the land in or around 1264 indicating the likely starting date for that work. The chancel is a splendid piece to the style with lancet windows surviving on three sides. Also surviving from the 13th century is the priest's doorway. Apart from replacing a few windows during the Decorated & Perpendicular periods the church remained essentially unchanged until Victorian times. A failed experiment with transepts which were added and then removed was augmented by a northern aisle and replaced northern doorway. The church sits behind a low brick wall in a slightly raised elevation, at the northern end of the site a gateway gives access to a curving pathway leading to the church. Despite bordering trees the churchyard is open and free from photographic obstacles.